en ety SP ee 
132 The American Geologist. March, 1902 
present himself for examination in the higher legal course, 
for political reasons—although he himself was an innocent 
party—certain difficulties appeared and he withdrew. Thus 
science gained a brilliant scholar and geology a zealous inves- 
tigator. 
Going to Berlin (1840) he came within the influence of 
such men as Weiss, in mineralogy, von Dechen, in geology, es- 
petially that of Germany, Gustav Rose, in geognosy and min- 
eralogy, Mitscherlich and H. Rose, in chemistry, von Lichten- 
stein in zoology, Johannes Miiller, in anatomy and physiology, 
Dove in physics and Steffens in anthropology. 
On May Io, 1842, he received the degree of doctor of 
philosophy, having presented a paleontological dissertation en- 
titled ‘De Astartarum genere et speciebus quae e saxis iuras- 
sicis et cretaceis proveniunt.” 
The time spent at Berlin had an important bearing upon 
his future in still another direction. It was here that an inti- 
mate friendship sprung up between him and von Dechen, Bey- 
rich, and Ewald, and his iptercourse with them led, on his 
part, to a wider comprehension of geology and a better un- 
derstanding of the methods to be pursued in research. About 
this time he became engaged in a series of investigations in the 
Rhenish mountains which covered the summer season of sey- 
eral years. The results of this work were published, in 1844, 
under the title “Das Rheinische Ubergangsgebirge. Eine palae- 
ontologisch-geognostische Darstellung.” The next year 
(1845) his first contribution to the “Neues Jahrbuch fur Min- 
eralogie, Geologie und Palacontologie”’ appeared and thereaf- 
ter for more than forty years his name was familiar to the 
readers of that journal. 
He now (1845) entered upon that part of his career which 
is of the greatest interest to Americans, especially Texans. 
With means provided in part by the “Berliner Akademie der 
Wissenschaften” and with the warm personal endorsement of 
the celebrated traveller and explorer, Alexander von Hum- 
boldt, he undertook a journey to America for the purpose of 
studying its geology and paleontology, in the course of which 
he spent a year and a half in the then little known state of 
Texas. Here, to judge from the results of his investigations, 
his activity must have been very great, for, in addition to con- 
